1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging method, particularly to a scene imaging method using a portable two-camera omni-imaging device for human-reachable environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many street view systems have been developed. To exploit a certain street scene, one may just browse a street view system to see the scene online without going there. This provides great value to applications like city touring, real estate sales, environmental management, etc. To collect street scenes, Google Street View Cars were used. To enter narrow lanes, a Street View Trike was designed later. Also launched was a Street View Snowmobile for use on rough terrains. Aboard each of these vehicles is an imaging device with eight digital cameras, one fish-eye camera, and three laser range finders for scene collection. The device weighs about 150 kg.
Though the use of the Street View Trek overcomes the incapability of the Street View Car in reaching narrow alleys, it is hard for a rider to pedal the heavy tricycle on steep ways. Also, although the Snowmobile has better mobility, it still cannot be ridden to some spaces like indoor stairways, mountains tracks, garden paths, etc. Below are briefly cited some prior arts of the scene imaging method. Among them, the Taiwan patent No. M373507 uses two cameras to capture a scene at different angles, and stitches a plurality of images by calculating setting values of the cameras. Besides, the Taiwan patent No. 201200960 uses a camera to record directions and angles of images in combination with other equipments, wherein the directions and angles are helpful in stitching the images. For the prior arts, processing a large amount of data would result in time delay.
In view of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides a scene imaging method using a portable two-camera omni-imaging device for human-reachable environments, so as to solve the afore-mentioned problems of the prior art.